Temperance Brewing Tap Room Evanston

Ive been to the new Temperance Brewing tap room three times now and I feel like recommending it as a fun place to hang out, sample the house made beers and play shuffleboard. After FEW Spirits, it's another nod to Mrs. Willard by an Evanston-based alcohol-making establishment; Temperance, indeed!

I dont think that Temperance's beers (or tap room) are at a level yet with Half Acre or Revolution but those places set a pretty high standard for me. To my taste Temperance's best beers are Restless Years Rye Pale Ale, Freedive Black IPA and Gatecrasher English IPA. They have some beers in other styles that dont appeal to me that much like a cherry ESB and a Blueberry wheat. Ive never been a huge fan of English ESBs and Temperance seems to offer alot of types of them. They offer various pours as small as 4 oz for $2 so you can sample before you commit to a pint.

Overall I think their beers are decent and it is cool to have people in my hometown of Evanston making beer and offering to host folks in their brewery. I like that.

It is a tap room so there are no other drinks except their beer and no food (except for beef jerky which I havent tried yet). You can bring in food. Their website notes frequent food truck visits and I imagine that could be fun. One wall is a double garage door that opens to a large outdoor deck.

The atmosphere is spartan, with exposed painted cinder blocks and a handsome back bar of blond wood. It is an industrial space. There is a medium sized shuffleboard. A few windows look into the brewery. Im not super keen on the communal tables with are kind of low and remind me of my junior high lunch room.

Unlike beer geek destinations like Hopleaf and the afore-mentioned tap rooms, you can bring your kids to Temperance. Or "they" can bring "their" kids I suppose depending on your pov. Ah, Evanston.

Temperance is located in a small industrial park. The Dempster/Dodge area is not exactly the usual place folks might go to in Evanston for food or entertainment and except for Panino's in the now Dominick's-less Dempster Plaza and Chicken and Waffles a few more blocks west on Dempster, there isnt really much around here except gas stations, payday loan stores and fast food outlets. And ETHS a couple blocks North. But I suppose that is one of the charms of Temperance, its funky location.

I'm a big fan of Temperance. Josh and Claudia are usually around to talk about the beers. I think the Gatecrasher - an IPA dry hopped with Falconers Flight hop mix - is exceptional. I agree the fruit beers are a little weaker, but they're still interesting. Anyone seeking it out should know that it's around in the back of a large industrial building shared by many businesses - there's a small sign on Dempster, then you have to drive into the large parking lot and look for the Temperance logos on two of the garage doors. The tap room entrance is a little to the left of those.

[And, for the record, I've never seen her referred to as "Mrs. Willard." She was never married, but reportedly had a good number of girlfriends.]

It's great that they are so ambitious and apparently have funding, but my goodness are they one of the weakest local breweries. I've yet to have a single beer by them (and I've tried at least 4) that I thought was good.

Disagree, I disagree. Rootdown is an excellent, roasty-flavored porter. And the Freedive Black IPA also does a good job with roasty flavors. I still think it's a good place to enjoy beers in an unexpected location.

I've been once (after abandoning the NU-Cal football game) and really enjoyed the vibe. Casual, great patio for warm weather, bigger beer selection than I expected (compared to some of the tap rooms I've visited)...definitely a nice addition to the city of Evanston!

This weekend, Temperance released bottles of their first barrel aged beers. Both beers were aged in High West barrels used to barrel aged cocktails. One was manhattan. The other was boulevardier. Their boulevardier barrel aged beer won a bronze medal at this year's FOBAB (the biggest competition for barrel aged beers). My preference was for the Manhattan one, though both were really nice.

HT70 wrote:This weekend, Temperance released bottles of their first barrel aged beers. Both beers were aged in High West barrels used to barrel aged cocktails. One was manhattan. The other was boulevardier. Their boulevardier barrel aged beer won a bronze medal at this year's FOBAB (the biggest competition for barrel aged beers). My preference was for the Manhattan one, though both were really nice.

I bought a bottle of the Manhattan, got there a bit late for the Boulevardier, but tasted both. I liked the latter more, a little boozier, but both were good. I also liked the un-aged stouts, the coffee one was my favorite. They might still have it on draft. They also had a blackberry & raspberry one that sounded interesting, but that was released on thursday--haven't stopped in.